After a winter of feeding hay, horses and horse owners are looking forward to seeing green grass. Make plans now for getting the most out of your horse pasture this year. Your pasture grass species may vary by location, but most folks in Eastern North Carolina have warm-season grass pastures. With warmer and longer days, these grasses will soon be breaking dormancy and starting to grow. It’s important to be ready to supply nutrients to these growing plants.
I cannot stress enough that pasture management absolutely must start with a soil sample. The North Carolina Department of Agriculture and Consumer Services will conduct routine soil samples for free, so this will only cost you the time it takes to collect the sample. But the information gained can save you a lot of money.
Taking the soil sample needs to be done carefully. Use a plastic (not metal) bucket and a stainless steel or chrome plated collection tool. Identify the areas you wish to sample, paying careful attention to soil type, terrain, and the type of grass on the area being sampled. If there is a different species of grass, you will need a separate sample, because the recommendations you will be given are for the soil and the crop. Differing soil types should be sampled separately as well, because their needs will vary also. The rule of thumb is, if the area is large enough to be managed separately (liming, fertilizing, grazing) then it should be sampled separately. Once you’ve identified the area to sample, collect 15-20 cores from a random pattern all across the sample area. Put those cores in the bucket, stir them together to break up clods, and fill the sample box with the mixture. When collecting cores, avoid odd areas like old burn piles, hay-feeding areas, or obvious manure pats as these will give you inaccurate results. Sample boxes and soil test information forms are available at all county Extension offices.
The bad news about soil sampling is that the lab gets really busy in winter time with farmers who have submitted samples from their fields after harvesting last year’s crop. The current estimated turnaround time for soil samples is five weeks, so if you haven’t sampled, it will be at least that long before you can expect results. The alternative is to use a private lab, which will cost you somewhere in the range of $6-10 per sample, but should offer your results in about a week.
Once you have soil test results, the most important thing you can do is to apply any necessary lime. Lime corrects the pH of the soil. Our soils in NC become more acidic over time, and lime brings the pH back up closer to neutral. If the pH of your soil is low, then your crop, including a pasture crop, will not use any fertilizer you apply as effectively or efficiently. Lime can be applied any time of year to pastures, but takes a few months to start correcting the acidity.
So, if your pH has been corrected or was OK to begin with, now how about fertilizer? Again, those recommendations will be made in a soil test report based on your soil and the species of grass you are growing. The three major plant nutrients are Nitrogen (N) Phosphorous (P) and Potassium (K.) Of these three, P and K can “build up” in your soils over the years by applying them in some form. If the levels of these nutrients in your soils (as well as some other nutrients like Sulfur) are high enough, then there will not be a plant response to any additional supply of these nutrients supplied in fertilizer. So if you are using a “complete” fertilizer such as 19-19-19, and have high P and K indexes in your soil, you are wasting money in this instance because two of the nutrients that fertilizer is supplying are not needed. My point in saying all this is that having a soil sample is the only way to know exactly what you need or don’t need for fertilizer.
So be prepared when grass breaks dormancy to apply needed fertilizer and get a jump on plant growth. For bermudagrass, which is our most common pasture grass, Nitrogen should be split into 3 equal applications in April, June and mid-July. Phosphorous can be applied along with the first fertilizing, and Potassium is best split into a spring and summer application. Remember that in grazing situations a lot of nutrient is returned to the soil by the animal’s urine and feces, so Nitrogen rates can be reduced by 25-50%, depending on how grazing is managed, and particularly on how uniformly the urine and feces are distributed across the pasture.
For more information on managing pastures for horses, contact your local Cooperative Extension office. You can find your local office’s information by visiting this link and clicking on your county. http://johnston.ces.ncsu.edu/index.php?page=countycenters
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